Approval by Green members means the motion is now party policy, although it will not necessarily be included in the party’s manifesto at the next general election.
By Shula Rosen
British Prime Minister Andy Burnham ruled out a Labour partnership with the Green Party while its policy defining Zionism as a form of racism remains in place, calling the position “wrong” and “antisemitic.”
Burnham addressed the issue during Prime Minister’s Questions in the House of Commons after Conservative MP Dame Harriett Baldwin urged him to “rule out cooperating” with the Greens. Burnham responded that Labour would have “nothing to do with it.”
Green Party members approved the policy at their conference earlier this month. The motion defines Zionism as an ideology supporting “an ethnonationalist Jewish state in historic Palestine to the exclusion and/ or domination of the non-Jewish population”.
Jewish groups, four Green MPs and two former party leaders have criticized the measure, with one former leader describing it as “dangerous” and “divisive”.
Green Party leader Zack Polanski, who has called the motion “imperfect” and said he wants it amended, criticized Burnham’s comments.
“The dangerous and irresponsible blurring of challenging Israel and antisemitism is deeply revealing.”
Polanski also said: “A Labour Government who apologized over their actions over Gaza is demonstrating that it was all performative. Andy Burnham still stands with Israel whilst it kills innocent people [sic].”
Calling himself “the only Jewish leader of a political party,” Polanski said he experiences antisemitism every day.
He has defended a central assertion in the motion, however, saying its claim that “the displacement and genocide of the Palestinian people is clearly underpinned by racist ideology” was “obvious”. Israel has repeatedly denied that its actions in Gaza constitute genocide.
Approval by Green members means the motion is now party policy, although it will not necessarily be included in the party’s manifesto at the next general election.
Ben Judah, a former Foreign Office adviser to David Lammy, called Burnham’s response “hugely welcome after the Greens measure has caused such shock and distress in the Jewish community.”
Hours earlier, Reform UK leader Nigel Farage urged Labour in an op-ed in The Jewish Chronicle to “draw a red line” and declare that “there will be no electoral pacts with the Green Party. Not now, not ever.”